bakedbean

Before I get started, I should say that this is not a religious rant, but it might be a supermarket rant

You see, it seems to me, if one owned a supermarket in Malaysia, and if one decided to stock pork products, wouldn't one think about employing staff that are happy to handle the said products? Isn't it the right and proper thing to do in a multi-racial country? Or not stock pork products if they want to employ Malay staff? Or have a separate counter manned by say Chinese staff to pay for said pork products? I think Tesco does the latter, doesn't it?

But... Cold Storage not. Had a quick whizz around Cold Storage this morning to pick up a few things. When I plopped my little pack of smoked pork loin meat at the check-out, the Malay gal looked at me horrified, like I'd plonked a hand grenade in front of her. Cannot touch. So we had a little performance where I held the packet away from her with the bar code pointing in her direction, and she picked up a manual scanner to scan it. And I wonder how many times a day the poor girl has to go through this. Maybe she should go get a job at Tesco.

ex reg

Here in Singapore most of the pork is farmed in Indonesia, slaughtered there as well.

Mind you it doesn't taste as good as the pork we get in the UK.
We always comment on this when we return to UK.
The chicken doesn't taste as good here either even if it is Kampong chicken which is supposedly 'free range'

There used to be millions yes absolutely millions of pig farms in Singapore.
Water skiing off Punggol was a real challenge because you never ever wanted to fall off into the water into which the pig farm slurry used to drain.

columbine

At C. Storage I usually pay for the pork stuffs at the pork section unless the cash machine's not working. That happened a few times and I took the pack to the general counter, but I put another plastic bag over that so that Malay girl didn't have to touch the 'original' wrapping and that seemed ok the few times it happened...though she didn't look too happy. It's not my fault if their pork section cash machine was not working at that time

bakedbean

Ya, we used to get some lovely pork in Norfolk (UK) though I think the very best I tasted was in Nerja in southern Spain where the pigs run around eating herbs and the like. Very nice.

The pork in Thailand is quite nice too.

bakedbean

I didn't know you could do that. Oops

ex reg

We spent one Christmas and New Year in and around Nerja.
We enjoyed it very much.
The paella in those 6 foot diameter pans the guys made down by the beach were great with a few beers.
The one guy is quite famous now as I've seen him on a couple of UK cooking programmes, Floyd or Stein.

And the drives around the white villages up in the mountains were spectacular.

My missus always remembers the rabbit we BBQ'd on Christmas day instead of a turkey it was so juicy and tender unlike any rabbits you can get in the UK.

bakedbean

Yes it's a very nice area. We only went there once and that was in winter. Very nice climate. Oh and the Hams.... Oh boy I'm dribbling now. Ate so much pork on that trip only downside about the place was that it seemed to be overrun with dogs and you really had to watch where you were walking if you know what I mean crikey getting a bit off topic again

joamelie

I've had that too in Cold Storage...the one in Midvalley never seems to have the till open in the pork section, and I always feel terrible when you get that look of horror from the poor girl on the till. Like you, I always hold while she scans, they always look very appreciative afterwards! Seeing as they have a butcher in the pork section who is happy to handle pork, why don't they train him in how to use the till too?

Strider24

In our local Selayang Tesco Non Halal section we sometimes get a whole Spanish pork belly. Works out much cheaper taking the whole side and they happily cut it into slabs. We eat it in fried rice, as streaky bacon, ginger pork, yam pork, fried pork n beans, sort of home made char siew, pork hot pot......now I'm drooling...and the checkout is inside the non halal section

bakedbean

Wish we had a dribbly smilie on here

ajw

I think I eat more pork here in Malaysia than I ever did in Australia - its everywhere!!

Strider24

....and yummy. I often get RM10 worth of mixed crispy skin roast pork and lean char siew to add to my dry won ton for breakfast. Can't get "real" steak or edible lamb up here and one gets fed up with chichen...ahhh but pork never get tired of.

bakedbean

I would dispute that re lamb. Have had an excellent lamb shank at Blue Reef in SQ, a bit pricey but very nice. And No Eyed Deer does an excellent Lamb rhogan josh, i think rm 12 or thereabouts and quite a plateful.

Strider24

Will have to try that lamb. I guess if its fresh chilled decent Kiwi stuff just flown in it would be OK. Most I have seen has been frozen from goodness knows where, hacked without any thought to decent butchering.